Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning…

STATE CAPITOL: No, you can’t have a tissue. The Minnesota Senate includes Kleenex in a 5-percent budget cut. [Associated Press]

STEARNS COUNTY: Here comes the judge… not. A district court judge’s retirement could mean losing that spot on the bench to another county; in any case, Gov. Pawlenty has been holding judgeships open for as long as nine months, for budget reasons. [St. Cloud Times]

WILLMAR: Take stimulus funds for public security cameras, panel recommends. Twenty-five years after 1984, video cameras might finally police Willmar’s streets.  [West Central Tribune]

BEMIDJI: Protesters rally to break our dependence on foreign oil. Members of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe don’t want Enbridge Energy to pump petroleum from Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wis., across their land. [Bemidji Pioneer]

STATEWIDE: Another volunteer-of-the-year award. A study of volunteerism ranked the Twin Cities first among big metro areas and Minnesota third among states. [City Pages; Star Tribune]

PIERZ: Like butter. Margaret Anderson Kelliher now holds the title of Speaker of the House in Minnesota but 24 years ago, she revealed at a Minnesota Milk Producers Association farm tour that her title was dairy princess of Blue Earth County. [Brainerd Dispatch]

Rep. Bud Nornes (R-Fergus Falls) offered an amendment to the public safety finance bill currently being debated in the House that would allow for such prosecutions. Currently, state law limits adult prosecutions to defendants 14 and older.

In arguing for the change, Nornes cited the case of Emily Johnson. The two-year-old Fergus Falls resident died three years ago after the 13-year-old son of her day-care provider threw her against a wall. Johnson’s parents have lobbied for the change, as noted in this recent Fox 9 report.

“To those that argue that a 13-year-old doesn’t have any common sense and doesn’t know the different between right and wrong, I think they’re wrong,” Nornes said.

But Rep. Michael Paymar (D-St. Paul), who chairs the Public Safety Finance Division, objected to the amendment, arguing that it wasn’t germane to the finance legislation. House Speaker Margaret Anderson Keliher (D-Minneapolis) backed this argument.

Nornes (pictured) and other supporters of the legislation then sought to overrule the Speaker’s decision.

“I ask you to look deep into your soul and say this was a wrong decision and support Emily and her family,” Nornes implored his colleagues.

But the House voted to back Kelliher’s ruling by an 83-48 margin, largely along party lines, thus killing the amendment.